Jackie, the nurse manager, is violating her job responsibilities: she does not attend meetings of the Joint Commission, ignores requests for guidance and support, and establishes a non-working relationship with some employees. This problem could be a result of Jackie’s misunderstanding of her role as a leader. Scientists emphasize the importance of communicating difficult information promptly, so it was decided to deal with this problem immediately (Moosey, 2016). This paper aims to evaluate Jackie’s performance as a leader, develop a performance improvement plan for her, and suggest options for more productive employee interactions.
Evaluation of Jackie’s Performance as a Leader
Thus, Jackie’s performance as a leader has to be evaluated. The day before, it became known that Jackie canceled the Thursday meeting of the Joint Commission. Since Jackie is the nurse manager, she could not cancel the meeting without explaining the reasons to the staff, but she did not give any explanations. In addition, Jackie ignored the request for professional support and guidance. At the same time, some colleagues were embarrassed by Jackie’s attempts to arrange her personal life at the workplace.
It should be noted that Jackie’s behavior violates the standards of the professional performance of the nurse manager. Since it is the nurse manager’s responsibility to manage the team, canceling meetings of the Joint Commission, and ignoring requests from subordinates for guidance and support is the failure of the nurse manager to perform her duties. Besides, non-working relationships with colleagues are a violation of the standards of professional behavior.
For the performance improvement plan (PIP), the performance issues mentioned above should be documented. On Thursday, Jackie was late for the meeting of the Joint Commission that started at 2.p.m. Upon arrival, she announced that she had canceled the meeting the day before, sending emails to her colleagues, although Jackie did not send any emails. On the evening of the same day, Jackie refused to help Kyle, who was working with a difficult patient. The patient expressed aggression; he stopped eating, threatened medical staff and other patients, and physically assaulted another patient. On Kyle’s next shift, Jackie ignored him again, giving much more personal attention to her colleague Martin.
Implications of Jackie’s performance for the organizational mission, vision, and goals are worth considering. Scientists believe that hierarchical differences may become a barrier to effective collaboration (Pettit & Duffy, 2015). At the same time, the factor of interpersonal communication between medical staff proved to be a determining factor for progress in the patients’ recovery in 65% of cases (Pettit & Duffy, 2015).
Jackie’s misunderstanding of her role as a leader can cause a sharp deterioration in patients’ performance and is certainly affecting the work of the whole team. The negligent behavior of the medical staff runs counter to the organization’s vision of the medical institution as a place where each patient receives the proper amount of attention and care. Besides, the irresponsible attitude of the medical staff to their duties prevents the organization from achieving its main goal of increasing the level of recovery among patients. Thus, the reputation of the entire medical institution suffers, as it fails to fulfill its mission of providing the highest quality medical services.
Performance Improvement Plan Development
In this regard, an action plan to improve Jackie’s leader performance was developed. Firstly, Jackie’s behavior can be caused by her incompetence, as she lacks the will to sustain effective action. Therefore, Jackie is invited to take advanced training courses for nurse leaders under the “A Guide for Nurse Leaders” program, and then present a detailed report to the management (Cianelli, Clipper, Freeman, Goldstein, & Wyatt, 2016). Secondly, Jackie will need to see a psychotherapist who will assess her mental state. If Jackie has mental disorders, she will need to undergo psychotherapy.
Thirdly, Jackie will be required to attend meetings of the Joint Commission, as this is a part of her job responsibilities. Finally, it is necessary to continue the work under the TeamSTEPPS program, particularly holding the Joint Commission meetings, since it helps employees to develop communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support skills. Management hopes that Jackie will meet certain professional performance expectations after completing the proposed plan. After taking advanced training courses, she will have to develop specific leadership skills. These are divergent thinking and failure tolerance, agility, flexibility, and willingness to take risks, desire to give co-workers autonomy and freedom to complete tasks as they see them.
Positive Effects of Improvements in Jackie’s Performance
The effectiveness of medical treatment and environment safety may depend on how the medical staff performs their duties. Improvements in Jackie’s performance will influence health care delivery and patient outcomes. In particular, Mr. Kyle will find it easier to work with problem patients. Providing a safe environment is critical, as the director of nursing (DON) and assistant director of nursing (ADON) are legally responsible for the possible consequences of aggressive patients’ behavior, such as accidents that result in death or personal injury to a patient.
For consolidation of the positive effects of improvements in Jackie’s performance, it is necessary to continue the teamwork under the TeamSTEPPS program. This program was designed to help healthcare workers improve communication and increase overall productivity (“About TeamSTEPPS,” 2015). Scientists believe that communication between employees performing various roles is extremely effective, saying that “Multiple disciplines can utilize a common framework… to support outcomes of high quality and safe care, and capitalize on the opportunities of multiple views and discipline-specific approaches” (Wojciechowski, Pearsall, Murphy, & French, 2016, para. 1). Through the work under the TeamSTEPPS program, employees will develop communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support skills.
Conclusions
Thus, Jackie’s professional performance was evaluated, and the PIP was developed for Jackie. After Jackie meets the requirements of this plan, she will become a more conscious leader, which will positively affect the work of the team. Her role is very important since the organization’s mission of providing the highest quality medical services and creating a safe and caring environment for patients highly depends on the well-coordinated work of the team.
Recommendations
Firstly, Jackie was invited to take advanced training courses for nurse leaders and then to present a detailed report to the management. Training will help her to perform her nurse manager role more confidently. She will also develop essential leadership skills such as divergent thinking and failure tolerance, agility, flexibility, and willingness to take risks, desire to give co-workers autonomy, and freedom to complete tasks as they see them.
Secondly, Jackie will need to see a psychotherapist who will assess her mental state and, if necessary, undergo psychotherapy. The therapy will allow her to resolve emotional problems if she has any. Thirdly, Jackie will have to attend the meetings of the Joint Commission. Her presence will help to unite the team and give its members a sense of belonging, so they could share their opinions and support each other. Finally, it is necessary to continue teamwork under the TeamSTEPPS program, particularly, holding meetings of the Joint Commission, since interpersonal communication proved to be a determining factor of the staff productivity.
References
About TeamSTEPPS. (2015). Web.
Cianelli, R., Clipper, B., Freeman, R., Goldstein, J., & Wyatt, T. H. (2016). The innovation road map: A guide for nurse leaders. Web.
Moosey, M. (2016). Communicating difficult and taboo information: A how-to guide for commanders. Military Medicine, 181(suppl_1), 40-43.
Pettit, A. M., & Duffy, J. J. (2015). Patient safety: Creating a culture change to support communication and teamwork. The Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, 26(4), 23-26.
Wojciechowski, E., Pearsall, T., Murphy, P., & French, E. (2016). A case review: Integrating Lewin’s theory with lean’s system approach for change. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 21(2). Web.